Destiny without Damnation
by VA23
Summary: What happens when one denies destiny? Damnation. Chaos. Genocide. Light Yagami denied the Death Note when it was presented to him and must now work with the task force to catch the one who holds the world hostage with merely a pen stroke.


Destiny without Damnation

Chapter One: Refusal

* * *

Two worlds exist side by side, like the opposing faces of a coin. They both exist in harmony, only because one of those worlds is blissfully unaware of the opposite world.

The humans of the mortal plain have absolutely no idea they are nothing more than the playthings of gods. Gods, who at a mere whim and swish of a pen, could end their lives just to prolong their own.

But these gods of death had become lax in their Melina of existing. Now, instead of sacrificing bountiful human lives to extend their own, these shinigami wasted away playing games of chance with bones and their very existence on this plain of gray, boring death.

But as one shinigami watched the humans go about their mundane lives, a single thought came to his head.

_This place is…_

--

_So boring!_ Light Yagami said to himself as his English teacher droned on and on about pronouns and adjectives and what else have you.

_I'm the smartest kid in this school- hell, probably the country- and I'm stuck here with all these idiots. _The rest of the class gave as much attention to the teacher as Light did. That is to say none at all. They all had better things to do in the form of gossip and texting than secure their futures.

As Light gazed longingly out the window to the freedom that was just less than an hour away, a most curious thing caught his attention.

A notebook, falling through the air to the courtyard below.

--

When school let out at 3:30, Light Yagami made his way past the courtyard and would have forgotten about the notebook entirely if not for another victim of gravity catching his attention: a black feather, over half a foot long, landing on top of the leather-bound book.

As Light bent down to pick up the fallen items, his attention perked when he read the title of the note book written in English.

Death Note.

_Death Note? _Light thought in mild curiosity. _As in a notebook of the dead?_ Light flipped the book open to the first page.

_Whoever's name is written in this note shall die, _proclaimed the scratchy writing inside. The words were in English and were written as though the writer knew the language, but wasn't very good at writing it. Light scoffed at the obvious and very poorly thought out prank. He dropped the notebook and walked away as he studied the curious feather he had found with it.

"From a raven perhaps? No, too long for that bird. Maybe a condor or some other scavenger," Light murmured quietly as he turned the feather over in his hands. It had a very curious shine to it, as though it wasn't used to the sun.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden desire to go back to the "Death Note" and see what the prank was exactly. He couldn't explain, even to himself, this want- no this _need_- to go back and pick up that notebook.

He stopped walking and shook his head in annoyance. "Don't be stupid," he chastised himself. "Some stupid notebook isn't calling out to you."

Somehow, without his notice or consent, he found his legs leading him back to the school. Light sighed in defeat and just decided to go with it and see what this joke was about.

As he made his way back to the school, Light berated himself for indulging in this childish prank. When he reached the courtyard, his scowled in annoyance when he noticed the notebook was gone.

--

"I'm home!" Light called out when he arrived home at 4:00 o'clock. As he took off his shoes, he heard running footsteps coming towards him.

"Hi, Oniisan!" his younger sister Sayu said as she skidded to halt on the wooden floor. "How was school today?"

Light smiled jovially as he patted his younger sibling on the head. "Same as every day, sis: long and monotonous."

Sayu gazed at him in a questioning matter. "Monotonous?"

The elder teen chuckled. "It means boring," Light said as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Then why couldn't you just say that?" Sayu whined behind him.

"Because that would be…monotonous!" Light laughed as he dodged a half-hearted swipe from his sister and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the table. He took a large bite and looked in the fridge for his favorite drink. "Where's my blue Gatorade?" he asked Sayu with his head in fridge's main compartment.

"You drank the last of it last night when you were studying for your calculus test, remember?" Sayu said as she turned the TV to the latest Ryuzaki music video.

Light scrunched his face in thought. He didn't remember getting the last blue Gatorade…but he probably did and just forgot. Very unusual for him.

"Whatever," Light said as he sat next to Sayu on the family couch and snatched the remote from her. She gave an indignant squeal and made to take it back from him, but Light's arms proved too long for her and she gave up with a huff.

Light flipped past channel after channel as he looked for something better than that pop singing pretty boy. He stopped when he saw a breaking news report about a gunman who had taken a preschool class hostage. He and his sister watched with bated breath as the news woman on scene continued her report.

"_We have confirmed that the gunman is a local deliveryman named Otoharada Kurou who arrived at the school this afternoon around three o'clock with a loaded 9mm pistol and took the East Wing class as his hostages. Police have tried negotiating with Otoharada without success. Now joining us is police chief Yagami Soichiro."_

"That's Dad!" Sayu exclaimed as Soichiro's mustached face filled the camera. The police chief wore a bullet-proof riot vest on his torso and had his helmet held under his right arm.

"And they call me the smart one," Light said as he increased the volume.

"_We have tried multiple times to reason with the gunman and our efforts have been rebuked each time. We haven't used tear gas yet because we're afraid he may fire at the children in the confusion."_ Soichiro said into the reporter's microphone.

_This is inexcusable, _Light thought to himself angrily. _No matter what his problem is, he shouldn't take his anger out on innocent children. Why doesn't he just die already and do the world a favor?_

Light and Sayu both gasped as the camera quickly panned to the front entrance where the gunman and exited. One of the cops shouted at Kurou to put the gun down and get on the ground. Kurou responded with a mad grin and pointed the gun at his head.

"_Rejoice!" _he shouted to the police and thousands watching on TV, "_For God has come to claim his rightful place!" _

He then pulled the trigger of his gun and the front wall of the school was painted a gruesome mural of red and gray. Light and Sayu stared in horror as the channel quickly changed back to the Sakura TV station and the anchor team apologized to all its viewers, even though their ratings were shooting through the roof.

"Oh my God," Sayu said as she put a trembling hand over her mouth. "He just—he just—" she sobbed and flung her arms around Light. He dumbly patted her head as he watched the female anchor talked to his father via phone about what just happened.

--

After Light had gotten Sayu to calm down, he headed up stairs to his room, the curious black feather in his hands again. He locked the door behind him as he always did.

Gazing at the feather for a few seconds, Light headed towards his desk and sat down. He placed the feather on the wood and grabbed a ruler to get an accurate measurement.

"8 and ¾ inches," he murmured as he wrote the number down on a piece of paper. He then grabbed the powerful microscope he had received for his 17th birthday, put the feather under the scope, and gazed through the lenses.

_This looks like a regular feather, _Light thought as he gazed at the magnified image. _But it feels…wrong._ Instead of the usual bristly feel of a bird feather, the one Light had felt like coal. _But that can't be right. If a bird's wings were made of carbonized rock, it would never be able to lift itself off the ground, nevertheless fly. _

Deciding that this was a mystery for another day, Light put his microscope back in its place and went outside to take a walk.

--

AN: And that's it for the first chapter. Just a little something I've had mulling around for the longest time. Next time, Light thinks he's going crazy when he's the only one who can see a monster flying around Japan.


End file.
